Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Targacept Inc., developer of an
experimental depression treatment with AstraZeneca Plc, had a
record drop after the companies said the drug failed to meet the
main goal of a clinical trial.

Targacept fell 60 percent to $7.61 at the close of trading
in New York, for the biggest decline since the company first
sold stock to the public in April 2006. The shares are down 71
percent this year.

The drug, TC-5214, was tested as an add-on treatment in the
trial in patients with major depressive disorder for whom
antidepressants alone didn’t work, London-based AstraZeneca and
Targacept said in a statement today. The medicine didn’t meet
its primary goal of change on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression
Rating Scale after eight weeks of treatment with TC-5214 as
compared with placebo, the companies said.

AstraZeneca, seeking a new product to offset lost sales
when patent protections on its Seroquel antipsychotic and
Crestor cholesterol drugs expire, bought rights to TC-5214 from
Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Targacept in December 2009.
The agreement widened a collaboration between the companies,
which had tried and failed to develop another experimental
medicine to treat Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Coin Toss

“It throws the asset into greater uncertainty,” said Josh
Schimmer, an analyst with Leerink Swann & Co. in a telephone
interview. “But most depression trials tend to be a bit of a
coin toss.”

AstraZeneca dropped 3.2 percent to 2,873 pence at the close
of trading in London.

Four other studies, all part of a series of trials dubbed
Renaissance, are under way, and results are expected in the
first half of 2012, the companies said.

Two of the four clinical trials usually done for depression
drugs usually have to show efficacy, Schimmer said. While this
trial failed, it doesn’t necessarily mean the drug won’t work,
he said.